Friday, June 08, 2012

Web Tool to Track Health Care System's Performance

The Health System Measurement Project tracks government data on critical US health system indicators. The project focuses on 10 critical dimensions of the ever-changing health care system and the availability, quality, and cost of care, in addition to the overall health of Americans. The project examines the evolution of these aspects of the system over time and assesses the status of the dimensions of the system with respect to subgroups of the population, with a particular emphasis on vulnerable populations. An All Measures page lists every measure available in the system. Users can browse measures by population characteristics, by an alphabetic index, or by the audience the data might interest.

Developed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the project aims to ensure a robust monitoring system through which people inside and outside the government can assess how the health care system is doing and identify areas that need improvement. One important purpose of the project is to track the consequences of implementation of the Affordable Care Act across this broad set of dimensions of the health system.